Seahawks fans Rootin’ for Tuten

informed that the readers of Seahawks.com had voted him the punter on the franchise’s 35th Anniversary team, Rick Tuten had one request.

“Please put my first quote as, ‘I really appreciate the vote of confidence after all these years,’ ” he said. “I’m glad the fans remember me, because I sure had a good time playing for the Seahawks.”

Tuten was with the team from 1991-97, when he punted in 101 games and set club records for punts in a career (554), season (108) and game (12), among others.

“People always used to say, ‘Well, you’re the starter,’ ” Tuten said. “I was like, ‘Well, yeah, because you’re either the starter or unemployed at that position.’ ”

Since retiring from the NFL after the 1999 season – his second with the St. Louis Rams – Tuten has lived in Ocala, Fla. He and his wife are in the process of finalizing a deal involving sports and fitness products.

“That will be ‘coming soon,’ is the official way to say that,” he offered. “But we’re real happy with it.”

Tuten also fishes a lot, and has gotten his captain’s license.

The story of his record-setting stint with the Seahawks is the 12th in a series of articles profiling the members of the reader-selected 35th Anniversary team.